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History

The daughter of the famous stage magician and escape artist Zatara, Zatanna joined him on tour as his assistant when she was a teenager, and also became good friends (as well as possessing a crush) with his student "John Smith", who was actually Bruce Wayne during his training to become a crime fighter.

After her father's death, Zatanna became a talented stage magician in her own right. For the finale of a show in Gotham City, she made the contents of the Gotham Mint disappear, to show up magic debunker Montague Kane. Unfortunately for her, Kane had not only seen through her trick, but was a thief, and stole the money while framing her for the crime. She was freed from custody and assisted in bringing Kane to justice by Batman, whom she recognized as her friend from long ago. When the adventure was concluded, Zatanna disappeared in a puff of smoke; leaving behind a note written on a handbill from her show wherein she acknowledged that she remembered him as John Smith. She expressed her sadness at the course his life had taken and told him not to forget to write[2]

Sometime later, she developed or discovered genuine magical powers, which she used to aid the Justice League, and occasionally sprinkled in with her normal stage tricks. It also became apparent that at some point, she found out Batman's real name as Bruce Wayne. After Wonder Woman was turned into a pig by Circe, Batman approached Zatanna for help, and she assisted him in tracking Circe down and reversing the spell.[5]

During Darkseid's last invasion of Earth, Zatanna was one of many League Members called to help fight the invading Apokoliptian forces, and afterwards to pursue and capture the remaining members of the Legion of Doom.[7]

Many years later, an elderly Bruce Wayne included her among a small group of women whom he remembered as special to him.[8]

Background information

In the comics, both Zatanna and her father, Zatara, have real magical powers, and most of their spells are performed by speaking words backwards. In her first animated appearance, in Batman: The Animated Series, she was portrayed as an ordinary magician, though she did say "Arba Dakarba" ("Abra Kadabra" backwards) during her show in Gotham. During her appearances in Justice League Unlimited, she displayed her powerful magic.

One of Zatanna's more controversial actions in the comics was to erase the memories of Dr. Light after he raped Sue Dibny, Elongated Man's wife, and threatened the other Leaguers' families. However, she accidentally lowered his intelligence. Batman walked in on the event and tried to stop the Justice League, but they instead erased his memories because of his refusal to budge on the issue. It clouded Zatanna and Batman's relationship, a friendship dating back to childhood. Batman appears to have forgiven her. The two became close and she asked why the two of them don't pursue a romantic relationship, Batman said he cared about her but didn't want to bring her to his dark world.

Both of Zatanna's major appearances in the DCAU were written by Paul Dini. On the commentary to "This Little Piggy", Bruce Timm and others joked that Dini was secretly in love with Zatanna for years. In real life, Dini went on to marry Misty Lee, a magician.